Experience of my life
nuttinbutchunks
11/30/08 7:47pm
I had never killed a big game animal until last Friday. Failure as a rifle hunter drove me to archery due to the longer season, thinking I could get more time to tag out. Well, archery is adicting, more than anything else it turns out.
Me and SWBuckmaster and another friend (Who we'll call Jerry, because that is his real name) hiked up Jacob's Latter east of Draper, UT, and into Corner Canyon. SWB had his pack goats, so he was behind me and Jerry quite a ways when we decided to stop and rest. Jerry spotted some deer in a small revien due south east of our location. I decied to go see if I could tag something so I walked back down the trail we came up and bushwacked accross the slope down to a small ridge above the revien wher the deer were.
I spotted a doe accross the revien and drew back, and fired a 5575 Gold Tip topped with a 100 grain Wasp Boss BH. It came in low missing the deer, and she scampered off. I waited for a few minutes because I could hear deer crunching in the snow and spotted a buck. Because of the clould fogg, I missed that one too, but he circled around lower on the slope above the reviene. I came down into the revien and spotted him again, as he was now facing me head on.
I figured 35 yards, and set my #2 pin on him. That one was low too, but because he was facing me the shaft blew through both his right legs. He buckled and rolled down the slope coming to a stop in the reviene. I then got pretty revved up and made the mistake of runnnig toward him, motivating him to get up and run even though the legs on his right side were broken. I now had 2 arrows left, and when I found him again he got up and as he ran off, I missed him with an arrow leaving me with 1.
His tracks merged with some others and he gave me the slip temporarilly as I followed the wrong ones for about 75 yards. I knew he was too hurt to go that far, so I back-tracked back, got back on his trail but this time I slowed way down, as I didn't want to scare him up on his feet again. I found him and he started to get up. I froze, and he laid back down now only 15 yards away. I then burried my last shaft into his shoulder, killing him in seconds.
By then I had chased him about a half mile down the revien, and by the time I got him quarted and boned out ( another new experience for me), I couldn't take him up the way I'd came 'cause the bag was too heavy. And down the mountain to civilization looked like it was quite a ways off. But that was the option I chose, hoping I would run into a trail somewhere in the process.
Well, I toured about 1 and a half to two miles of scrub oak before I came to the side of a hill that had sage brush. I went that way accross that hill and down the front side until I did find a trail. By then I had run out of water, and thoughts of Search and Rescue looking for me had crossed my mind. ](*,) That trail dropped me down south of where I started, and I hitched a ride with another hunter coming up the road ( my mom says I should never ride with strangers, but in this case I made an exception) :)) .
By the time I got home, my wife had been at the movies with my kids and she was kinda pissed because I told her I would be home at 12:00 noon, and it was 4:30, the movie was over and she was on her way back with the kids. When I called her on her cell (another mistake I made, I left my cell phone on my night stand when I left at 0 dark thirty that morning) she said "You better have a deer or you're in trouble for as late as you are". That deer was my get out of the dog house free card, and the kids were excited that I had actually gone out and killed something for a change instead of marching around with a bow and getting nothing done (Like I had done since August).
Anyway, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. As I write this, I have a belly full of deer speghetti. Mmmm..not bad. And whithout further adue, here's my querry.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y34/nuttinbutchunks/deer.jpg " alt="" />
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y34/nuttinbutchunks/deer2.jpg " alt="" />
Me and SWBuckmaster and another friend (Who we'll call Jerry, because that is his real name) hiked up Jacob's Latter east of Draper, UT, and into Corner Canyon. SWB had his pack goats, so he was behind me and Jerry quite a ways when we decided to stop and rest. Jerry spotted some deer in a small revien due south east of our location. I decied to go see if I could tag something so I walked back down the trail we came up and bushwacked accross the slope down to a small ridge above the revien wher the deer were.
I spotted a doe accross the revien and drew back, and fired a 5575 Gold Tip topped with a 100 grain Wasp Boss BH. It came in low missing the deer, and she scampered off. I waited for a few minutes because I could hear deer crunching in the snow and spotted a buck. Because of the clould fogg, I missed that one too, but he circled around lower on the slope above the reviene. I came down into the revien and spotted him again, as he was now facing me head on.
I figured 35 yards, and set my #2 pin on him. That one was low too, but because he was facing me the shaft blew through both his right legs. He buckled and rolled down the slope coming to a stop in the reviene. I then got pretty revved up and made the mistake of runnnig toward him, motivating him to get up and run even though the legs on his right side were broken. I now had 2 arrows left, and when I found him again he got up and as he ran off, I missed him with an arrow leaving me with 1.
His tracks merged with some others and he gave me the slip temporarilly as I followed the wrong ones for about 75 yards. I knew he was too hurt to go that far, so I back-tracked back, got back on his trail but this time I slowed way down, as I didn't want to scare him up on his feet again. I found him and he started to get up. I froze, and he laid back down now only 15 yards away. I then burried my last shaft into his shoulder, killing him in seconds.
By then I had chased him about a half mile down the revien, and by the time I got him quarted and boned out ( another new experience for me), I couldn't take him up the way I'd came 'cause the bag was too heavy. And down the mountain to civilization looked like it was quite a ways off. But that was the option I chose, hoping I would run into a trail somewhere in the process.
Well, I toured about 1 and a half to two miles of scrub oak before I came to the side of a hill that had sage brush. I went that way accross that hill and down the front side until I did find a trail. By then I had run out of water, and thoughts of Search and Rescue looking for me had crossed my mind. ](*,) That trail dropped me down south of where I started, and I hitched a ride with another hunter coming up the road ( my mom says I should never ride with strangers, but in this case I made an exception) :)) .
By the time I got home, my wife had been at the movies with my kids and she was kinda pissed because I told her I would be home at 12:00 noon, and it was 4:30, the movie was over and she was on her way back with the kids. When I called her on her cell (another mistake I made, I left my cell phone on my night stand when I left at 0 dark thirty that morning) she said "You better have a deer or you're in trouble for as late as you are". That deer was my get out of the dog house free card, and the kids were excited that I had actually gone out and killed something for a change instead of marching around with a bow and getting nothing done (Like I had done since August).
Anyway, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. As I write this, I have a belly full of deer speghetti. Mmmm..not bad. And whithout further adue, here's my querry.
6,028
Welcome to the sport of BOWHUNTING!!
I gotta tell ya, I've made plenty of long, short, bad, & good shots with my trusty 308 Norma Mag in all the years that I've hunted. When I picked up that bow & made my 1st bow kill I was done. Now I can't put it down.